Jossed Wanda needs to get Tossed out
aiOkay kids, gather around so I can calmly express my deeeeeeep frustrations with Wanda and Pietro Maximoff’s characters in the MCU. Well, I’ll be calm the same way Dumbledore was in the GoF movie. Cool?
I’m not writing this as an affront to the character of Wanda Maximoff as she has been written in the comics, as Romani children to a Holocaust survivor.
I’m writing this as a total assault against the MCU Whitewash of the character that full on changed the character to its exact opposite, a vengeful, angry, irrational and out of control Nazi who volunteered to join Hydra of her own accord. Not a child of a Holocaust Survivor. A volunteer who joined Hydra to get her powers and ruin the lives of her perceived enemy. Hydra. HYDRA. Just so we’re clear here, I’m going to say it again for the people in the back: THE MAXIMOFFS IN THE MCU JOINED HYDRA OF THEIR OWN ACCORD. THEY WEREN’T KIDNAPPED, FORCED, COERCED OR TRICKED INTO DOING SO. THEY WERE DOING IT WILLINGLY. THEY JOINED A NAZI ORGANIZATION WILLINGLY.
Next, let’s talk about MCU’s actress of choice before we go any further, because Elizabeth Olsen? wrong choice for the character, through and through. A super-wealthy white woman from a wealthy white family of actors and actresses with influence? Playing the role of a girl who just somehow turns out to be provocatively dangerous, attractive to the male gaze, and innocent all at once? The portrayal is flawed, and her acting - not her fault, this is ALL on Joss Whedon here - feels wrong, forced and mismanaged. It feels like a little girl playing with fire, with magic, instead of a twenty something woman in charge of her emotions, actions and decisions taking charge of her life. She is continuously portrayed as either the bully or the supremely innocent accuser, with no in between. This instability in character has made Wanda Maximoff an often Flat character with predictable actions, if you know these things about her:
2. She is out for herself (and Pietro in AOU) and will make the choice best suited for her survival
3. She’s emotional, stubborn and angry a lot.
That’s it. All her actions in the movies she’s been portrayed in? Go back and watch them again. You’ll see the pattern. There’s no character development where we see her changing and or breaking old patterns. One can argue that her affair with Vision will count as development, but I sincerely believe that is still more about the connection between her powers and the Mind Stone rather than any kind of affectionate and or intimate relationship between Vision and Wanda.
Moving back to the 3 points made above, her excessive outburst and her emotional instability and her inability to control her powers in face of her anger, has made her very volatile in various situations, as we see in CW. However, she is often referred to as “a kid” by a few members of the Avengers, bringing up the issue of her age and her agency. She is obviously in her mid-twenties, and fully able to make her decisions. Why is she excused for her actions and their consequences solely for something that’s not even true?
Moreover, let’s begin examining how she even got to join the Avengers in the first place. How did she manage to go from being a member of a known terrorist organization, one of the most well-known ones - HYDRA -, having just joined forced with a murderous genocidal bot to gain access to material and data he shouldn’t have had access to, to being a new member of the avengers just because she had a Moment with Clint Barton (a retired member of the Avengers team, previously mind-controlled, easily manipulated) and decided to save the city she was actually standing on instead of letting everyone on it - including herself - die a fiery end?
Legally, she shouldn’t have even been allowed to leave the helicarriers in the first place. She should have been arrested immediately under international law, to be tried by an international court for crimes against humanity, either by the ICC or ICJ or CVRIA (since Sokovia is implied to be a European country) or even the UN Security Council. She shouldn’t have been a problem for the United States. She shouldn’t have gone anywhere near the continent at all. As a European citizen, she should have been tried, judged and sentenced for her actions and faced the consequences.
Instead, she somehow bypasses all immigration laws and manages to gain entry to the U.S despite being a known terrorist, who just helped a murder bot, killed a lot of people, messed with the minds of a lot of American citizens, endangered their lives on multiple occasions, volunteered to join a known enemy combatant terrorist organization and acted against the US in various operations, and was actively hostile in combat situations. She has uncontrollable powers that can be used to manipulate the mind, memories, thoughts, actions, and can move things around of her accord. She just lost her twin brother, hates a well-known American celebrity and war hero/ex-weapons manufacturer/superhero she just fought against, and blames him for her parents’ death. She’s vengeful. Doesn’t have her passport with her. Doesn’t have identification. IS A MEMBER OF AN ENEMY SPY ORGANIZATION.
And yet, somehow, she doesn’t have to go through any of the required asylum seeking processes, doesn’t have to wait at a port of entry for a background check, medical check or family history, and doesn’t have to prove her allegiance to the U.S., or her reasons for seeking asylum, or why she hasn’t sought asylum in Europe instead? Why is she in the U.S in the first place? And if so, why isn’t she imprisoned and to be tried as an enemy of the State? That’s what she is. She is a known enemy of the state, a terrorist, an agent of Hydra, a Powered-hydra agent. That’s bad. That’s enemy. That’s a no-go.
But somehow, Captain America, Hydra’s number one Enemy since WWI is excited for her to join the Avengers as A MEMBER, even though she was their enemy just a second ago, and accepts her change of allegiance without her ever apologizing, mentioning the change in perspective, worldview and saying that she has changed sides for x y reason other than saving her behind.
Somehow, Wanda Maximoff, a foreign citizen, known enemy and member of a dangerous terrorist organization she joined of her own accord, who joined the side of a murderous bot and then changed sides because it suited her better becomes an agent representing the Avengers, representing the force of the United States as a whole, enforcing Worldwide security on a global level? Wanda Maximoff, who basically caused the entire disaster of AoU?
This is why Wanda’s anger over Tony’s request for her house arrest is unjustified. This is why her anger over Vision’s caution, and her totalling the Compound in retaliation is severely unjustified. This is why I say her characterization is flat, because she is always portrayed as an angry, irrational, emotional and stubborn child lashing out at whoever wronged her. Go back to the 3 points I mentioned above again. You see?
If we look at AOU from a sociopolitical and legal POV, the whole thing is a disaster. It doesn’t hold water at all. It falls apart at first glance. There is no explanation, no build-up to CW and no explanation for Wanda’s presence, much less why she somehow ends up an Avenger at the end of the movie.
Becoming an Avenger used to be an exclusive right, a process that was used to assess Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats, and fit with the entire team. AOU makes the process seem as easy of slapping a scrap piece of paper to a desk and calling it decoration. It’s not a fit, it’s not thought through, and it stick out like a sore thumb. It’s something other directors have had to deal with ever since.
So in conclusion, Joss basically ruined everything that made Wanda Maximoff who she was, the so called Scarlet Witch, and instead turned her into a caricature of who she should have been. She’s not even a reimagination of the Comic!Wanda. She may carry the name, but that’s about it.
That’s why I don’t like Wanda Maximoff in the MCU. This is why I am so passionate about why she shouldn’t be idealized as an inspiring character, as a role model, or as someone little girls should look up to. Because she’s not. She’s not a hero. She’s not. She got Jossed through and through.
